THE BROKEN HEART. 121 
bustle of the world. Love is but the embellish¬ 
ment of his early life, or a song piped in the inter¬ 
vals of the acts. He seeks for fame, for fortune, 
for space in the world’s thought, and domination 
over his fellow-men. But a woman’s whole life is 
a history of the affections. The heart is her 
world; it is there her avarice seeks for hidden 
treasures. She sends forth her sympathies on ad¬ 
venture ; she embarks her whole soul in the traffic 
of affection, and if shipwrecked her case is hope¬ 
less— for it is a bankruptcy of the heart. 
To a man the disappointment of love may oc¬ 
casion some bitter pangs ; it wounds some feel¬ 
ings of tenderness — it blasts some prospects of 
felicity ; but he is an active being — he may dissi¬ 
pate his thoughts *in the whirl of varied occupa¬ 
tion, or may plunge into the tide of pleasure ; or, 
if the scene of disappointment be too full of pain¬ 
ful associations, he can shift his abode at will, and 
taking as it were the wings of the morning, can “fly 
to the uttermost parts of the earth, and be at rest.” 
But a woman’s is comparatively a fixed, a seclud¬ 
ed, and a meditative life. She is more the com¬ 
panion of her own thoughts and feelings ; and if 
they are turned to ministers of sorrow, where shall 
she look for consolation ? Her lot is to be wooed 
and won ; and if unhappy in her love, her heart is 
like some fortress that has been captured, and 
sacked, and abandoned, and left desolate. 
How many bright eyes grow dim, how many 
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